kevin86: Agreed,the pawn guarded from behind is fully mobile as is the rook on defense. On the rank,the rook is very awkward and the pawn can be stopped from behind or in front. To stop a pawn guarded from behind reqires the opponent to BLOCKADE the pawn.

Eggman: <<I don't get why they have to play on a book draw endgame.>>
This endgame is actually pretty involved. I assume that they not only played on but played on after adjournment.

Rather than being an easy draw, is it even drawn at all? Rueben Fine thought so, and he provided the position after 41...Kg6 in his seminal work Basic Chess Endings, giving it as an example of an outside passed pawn protected by a Rook from the side and attacked by a Rook from behind, which he said was "a draw in general unless the pawn has reached the seventh."

Black is attempting to bring his King over to the queenside to escort the pawn, which he does by moving in an L-shape, shifting along the second rank to c7 kicking the White Rook, and then moving forward along the c-file. This wins if White does nothing. White must oppose the encroaching Black King with his own King, but this will leave his pawns undefended on on the kingside. Perhaps he can shift his own King to the kingside to go after Black's pawns?

In his anlysis, rather than Alekhine's 44...f4, Fine considers 44...Rc3, giving the continuation 45.Kd2 Rc2+ 46.Ke3 (White's King is freed from the first rank ...) b2 (... but Black's passer gets to the seventh) 47.Rb6 Ke7 and now Fine shows that the draw is not so easy:

Eggman: Of course, 55.Rg2 first! There's no need to play 55.Kxf5 right away as given by Fine. Now, for example, after 55...Rh3 56.Kxf5 g3
57.Ke4 h4 58.Kf3 Kd5 (58...Rh2 59.Rxh2! =) 59.Re2 Rh1 60.Kg4 I don't see how Black can make progress. So it probably is a draw after all. Thanks so much, <Calli>!

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